In recent years, resistance changing memory has been receiving attention as a successor candidate of flash memory. A memory cell in a resistance-changing memory includes a variable resistance element and changes between a high-resistance state and a low-resistance state to store data based on that resistance state. In many cases, the resistance-changing memory is configured by disposing such a memory cell having a variable resistance element, at intersections of a plurality of bit lines and a plurality of word lines (cross-point type).
Such a cross-point type resistance-changing memory has the following problem, namely that depending on a distance between a selected memory cell which is to be a target of a write operation (set operation) or an erase operation (reset operation), and a driver circuit of that selected memory cell, a parasitic resistance changes, whereby voltage application conditions differ. Such a difference in voltage application conditions, as well as increasing a load on the memory cell and deteriorating data storing characteristics, leads to reduce a performance of a memory device.